Syrian Civil WarDigital presentation

The Backstory

In 1971, Hafez al-Assad became president of Syria. During his presidency, he achieved "stability of the government and maintained strict control over the civil liberties of Syrian citizens". In 1963, the government had "instituted a state of emergency that had never been lifted" and this gave Hafez al-Assad more power to maintain order.

In 2000, Hafez al-Assad passed and his son, Bashar al-Assad, took over his presidency one month later without another opposition candidate. Because of Hafez's passing, this made Syrians who were pro-democracy activists have hope that this might change but, Bashar al-Assad kept the suppression of pro-democracy activists just like his father did.

Bashar al-Assad-President of Syria

President Obama, the President of the United States from 2009-2017, and other representatives from other governments around the world have asked Bashar-al-Assad to resign his position as president.

Causes and Effects

March 19th, 2011, is best known as the "Day of Rage" by protest organizers. Military services arrested thousands of demonstrators and protesters and this continued for several days. After a couple days the military services started to use violence.

All throughout March, protests started to erupt and the military tried to control the protesters. After more protesters started taking the streets, the military forces started to use more and more violence. This caused more people to fill the streets.

On May 29th, the Rebel Revolutionary Movement made an online message saying the Syrian National Coalition "failed to fulfill it's responsibility to represent the great Syrian people's revolution at the organizational, political, and humanitarian levels".

On April 25th, 2011, the military moved into Darra (where most protesting and demonstrations were) a couple days later the military forces "opened fire" on the protesters and this caused even more conflict.

Major Protest

In September, the United Nations (U.N.) found out that chemical weapons were being used during an attack that took place on August 21st (which was one of the more major attacks. Because the U.N. found this out, Syria got their chemical weapons taken away from them.

Towards the end of November in 2011, the U.N. estimated that over four thousand protesters had been killed by the military forces and that it was officially called a "civil war".

The F.S.A.

On July 31st, 2011, "army tanks and troops launched an assault on protesters in Hama". They started using more violence against protesters and the number of deaths kept growing larger and larger. This is when the Free Syrian Army (F.S.A.) formed.

Free Syrian Army (F.S.A.) Logo

Riad al-Assad has been the Commander of the F.S.A. since it has started. The F.S.A. is basically the protesters own improvised military.

The War Is Still Going

In the past 6 years, more than 11 million people have had to move out of their homes because of the military forces that are loyal to Bashar al-Assad and the people who are against his ruling at conflict. An estimated 4.9 million have had to leave Syria and have had to go to refugee camps and other nearby countries. The other 6 million that have had to leave their homes are still displaced inside the Syrian borders.

The war is still going on today and military forces are still using violence against protesters. Bashar al-Assad is still ruling while the protesting is asking him to resign as well as other representatives from other governments from around the world.